Following the refusal of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to participate in a special task force aimed at solving the coalition crisis by dealing with issues of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, the Zionist Union party is preparing a proposal to dissolve to government, which will be presented to the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
Yaalon’s refusal to participate in the task force eroded a patched up effort to avoid a rift in the coalition, as members of both the Likud and Jewish Home party expressed their outrage at Ya’alon’s decision to evacuate Jews from two buildings in Hevron which they purchased.
Yaalon was supposed to join Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel on the task force.
In light of the breakdown, and the public statements made by MKs Betzalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Oren Hazan (Likud) to not support the coalition in a vote in the plenum, the Zionist Union submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset, which will be read on Wednesday morning. Director of the Zionist Union faction Merav Michaeli said on Monday: “even members of the coalition have lost faith in their leader. If Netanyahu cannot control members of his own party, in spite of the fact that every vote in this government counts, that is his problem.”
“As the head of the official opposition, it is our duty to use whatever means lay at our disposal to oust this bad government and its leader.”
The Zionist Union faction emphasized that a proposal to dissolve the Knesset requires a majority of 61 MKs to vote in favor of the bill only during its third reading - something unlikely to happen even with the ongoing coalition squabbles. The left-wing party instead hopes to achieve at least a moral victory by achieving a small minority (less than 61 votes) in the first two readings.